Left 4 Dead 2

Ever since Valve wrapped up Left 4 Dead 2 a few years ago for Xbox 360, fans have been wondering when they could kill a whole bunch of zombies again with their friends. According to a former employee of the company, it's may not be too far off.

Popular zombie-killing shooter Left 4 Dead is becoming an arcade in Japan. While details are scant for now, the collaboration is the second between Japanese developer Taito and Valve. In 2006, the two worked on Half-Life 2: Survivor, an arcade adaptation of the Half-Life 3 prequel.

The Shacknews Chatty community continues to archive sessions of their favorite games across the large number of Shacknews Twitch channels and many of them have proven vastly entertaining to watch. And so we return with the second week of Chatty Twitch Highlights, featuring wonderfully over-the-top 80's action, virtual reality heart surgery, and a trip to Disneyland.
Here's a compilation of some of the best Shacknews Twitch highlights for the week of January 25, 2014.

Valve is wishing players everywhere a Happy Holidays by offering a special gift. Steam owners can pick up and install a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2 from now through 10am PST on Thursday, December 26, at which point it will return to its regular price.

The internet jokes that Valve is allergic to the number 3. However, it appears one sequel may finally reach that ever-elusive number. A recent tour of Valve's office by Reddit members has unearthed a listing for "Left 4 Dead 3."

A snapshot of an idle monitor (via Gamespot) shows a thread by a Ted Carson. "Restored L4D3," it reads, preceded by mention of Source 2--Valve's next-gen engine.

Left 4 Dead 3 previously surfaced in a supposed Valve project tracker, which also mentioned Half-Life 3. Of course, with employees being able to freely work on whatever they want, these listings won't necessarily coalesce into a real product.

Valve's beta version of Left 4 Dead 2 has graduated to become it plain old regular version. Yesterday's update brought the official launch of the co-op shooter's Linux version and the Extended Mutation System that lets modders create complex new modes.

The update ships with three EMS creations to show off a little what it can do, including Holdout--a neat little survival mode where you scavenge supplies to build fortifications and buy better gear. Mods with such delightful names as "Vicious Infected, Boomer Peril, Stranded, Vampirism, Plague of the Dead, Zombie Run, and Tiny Terror" are coming too, Valve says. Splendid.

The update converts L4D2 to the SteamPipe format too, for faster loading and downloads.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a jolly fascinating place but too expensive to visit and far too terrifying to tour virtually in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Thankfully, some kindly modders are treating us to a slightly friendlier whistlestop tour of Pripyat with Dniepr, a Left 4 Dead 2 custom campaign released today after three years of development.

The four-chapter campaign is based upon the abandoned city of Pripyat, mixing real places with slightly less real ones. Dniepr also includes loads of custom models, textures, sounds, and music. As well as plain old co-op monster-mashing, it also brings Versus and Survival fun.

Download Dniepr from Steam Workshop, awkwardly split into loads of little pieces, and visit the official site for more information. Also, look, trailer:

Valve has offered a treat to Linux users with the release of a Left 4 Dead 2 beta. A Portal beta for Linux is also available, but Valve has been a bit mum on that release. If you own any of those three games, the betas should appear in your Steam library.

The Left 4 Dead blog announced the release, revealing that they will use this build as a testing ground for the Extended Mutation System for script authors. Players will also get access to the authoring tools and the beta dedicated server. The Linux version is the same size as the original game, so go grab some food while you wait for the download.

BluesNews is also reporting that the Linux versions of Portal has started showing up in user libraries as well, so check for it if you own the game.

You try hurrying when your knees are splintered and tear rotten flesh with every step. After almost three years of development, Source mod Zombie Master 2 launched over the weekend. The follow-up drags the asymmetrical multiplayer RTS-FPS into the Orange Box version of Valve's engine with new features t'boot.

Zombie Master 2 pits a team of human survivors against hordes of naughty AI zombies, which are spawned and controlled by one single lord of the undead. The humans need to work together to complete objectives, not to mention scavenge for weapons and supplies, while the macabre manager works to stop them. The sole spook supervisor can spawn different strains of zombie with assorted attributes, controlling them from an RTS view.

As well as being spiffier thanks to the updated engine, having previously been on the plain old Half-Life 2 edition of Source, the sequel introduces new weapons for survivors, and the zombie master gets more monsters and traps to trigger. A team of ZM fans released the mod, building upon the code open-sourced after development on the original mod stopped in 2009.

Things are a bit wonky, this being the initial public beta release, but patches are promised. Hit the Mod DB page for more and to download Zombie Master 2.

You try hurrying when your knees are splintered and tear rotten flesh with every step. After almost three years of development, Source mod Zombie Master 2 launched over the weekend. The follow-up drags the asymmetrical multiplayer RTS-FPS into the Orange Box version of Valve's engine with new features t'boot.

Zombie Master 2 pits a team of human survivors against hordes of naughty AI zombies, which are spawned and controlled by one single lord of the undead. The humans need to work together to complete objectives, not to mention scavenge for weapons and supplies, while the macabre manager works to stop them. The sole spook supervisor can spawn different strains of zombie with assorted attributes, controlling them from an RTS view.

As well as being spiffier thanks to the updated engine, having previously been on the plain old Half-Life 2 edition of Source, the sequel introduces new weapons for survivors, and the zombie master gets more monsters and traps to trigger. A team of ZM fans released the mod, building upon the code open-sourced after development on the original mod stopped in 2009.

Things are a bit wonky, this being the initial public beta release, but patches are promised. Hit the Mod DB page for more and to download Zombie Master 2.